ABSTRACT
The 2009 economic and financial crisis, together with tragically broadening socio-economic disparities in worldwide cities, have given rise to spontaneous, citizens-led initiatives in public space planning and management. These initiatives have transformed many derelict urban areas into “laboratories” for experimenting with socio-ecological alternatives, such as urban gardening ( Evans and Karvonen, 2010 ; Corsin Jimenez, 2014 ). Even though such urban gardens seem to only alleviate trivial and inconsequential problems, they actually address and affect some of the most striking social, economic, and political issues of our time. Urban gardening has challenged certain contemporary political and economic models through, amongst others, the re-publicization of small parcels of land, the provision of fresh vegetables to the neighbourhood, the organization of leisure time, and the re-creation of proximity linkage.
